Global News

Issue 30, September 2014

News from the President

David Newman

Dear Friends, Colleagues and ISWA Members

The ISWA family met again in early September for its annual General Assembly and World Congress, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We all enjoyed Brazilian hospitality and a generally good level of debate from the 1000 delegates present. Thank you to the Brazilian association Abrelpe for their very hard work in organising this event.

The General Assembly elected some new Board members for the next two years and I welcome to the Board Gary Crawford, already known to you as Chairman of the Working Group on Climate Change. Gary works for the multinational collussus Veolia. Carlos da Silva Filho of Brazil was elected Vice President, Hakan Rylander reconfirmed as Treasurer and John Skinner as National Member representative. Ho de Leong of Malaysia was elected to represent the Asian region. My congratulations to them all and thanks for deciding to dedicate time to ISWA.

Edmund Fleck and Vice President Helmut Stadler were not re-elected and their personal disappointment reflects their passion for ISWA's mission. It is sad to lose them. My thanks to them both but particularly to Mr Stadler who served on the Board for six years with integrity and devotion to our cause.

I was re-elected as President for two more years and I thank the National Members for their trust and faith in my capacity to drive forward the Assocation. Above all, thank you, members worldwide, for your continuing interest and participation in ISWA. The world needs us more than ever.

David Newman President, ISWA

General Assembly 2014

General Assembly 2014

The newly elected ISWA Board

Derek Greedy, new Honorary Member of ISWA

On 7 September, the ISWA General Assembly was held at the Sheraton World Trade Centre in São Paulo, Brazil. The National Member Representatives present made some future-oriented decisions, among them the approval of two new National Members and the election of new Board Members.

With MaSWA from Macedonia and MOLDSWA from Moldowa ISWA will for the first time have more than 40 National Members. Taking into account all the professionals associated with its National Member Organisations, ISWA’s global network now already adds up to over 130,000 waste management experts.

The newly elected members on the ISWA Board of Directors are Ho De Leong, Malaysia, and Gary Crawford, USA/France. Carlos Silva Filho, Brazil - former Regional Development Network Representative on the Board - has been elected as ISWA’s new Vice President. President David Newman, Treasurer Håkan Rylander and National Member Representative John Skinner have been re-elected unanimously.

President David Newman thanked the leaving Board Members Helmut Stadler, Edmund Fleck and Amiya Sahu for their efforts and dedicated work for ISWA.

Derek Greedy from the UK, meritorious long term chair of ISWA’s Landfill Working Group, has been designated Honorary Member of ISWA by the General Assembly.

ISWA World Congress 2014, São Paulo, Brazil, 8-11 September

David Newman declaring the 2014 World Congress open

Almost 1,000 delegates attended the Congress

Before the Gala Dinner...

...and after: delegates on the dance floor

This year one of the world’s megacities was the stage for the ISWA World Congress. An estimated 20 million people live in greater São Paulo, making it the third-largest metropolis on earth. The venue fitted perfectly to one of ISWA’s current main complex of themes: megacities, informal sector and global recycling markets.

ISWA President David Newman expanded on the congress topic “Sustainable Waste Management to ensure a healthy future” in his opening speech.

Almost 1,000 Waste Management Experts from 64 countries attended the event, and the participants were offered much during the three congress days: the extensive programme contained more than 220 speeches in 55 sessions and several side events like the IPLA Global Forum and the RWM Trade Fair.

The ISWA Young Professionals Group, which has been established in 2013, organised a special session and an art exhibition that portrayed creative initiatives of the civil society engaged with the problems of solid waste.

One of the social events highlights of the congress was the gala dinner and the ISWA Award Presentation Ceremony in the HSBC Brazil Hall where a spectacular samba intervention and an exceptional show band made many congress delegates dance until very late night.

An inspiring speech from Antwerp Vice Mayor Phillip Heylen at the closing ceremony made the participants look forward with pleasant anticipation to the ISWA World Congress 2015 in Belgium.

More photos and all the presentations given at THE ISWA event 2014 will be available on www.iswa.org soon.

'ISWA World Cup' Football Tournament in Brazil

The 'ISWA World Cup' Trophy

ISWA World Cup Champions

ISWA World Cup Vice Champions

It wouldn’t be Brazil if the host of the 2014 ISWA World Congress wouldn’t have organised a football tournament for the participants as a side event after the congress. A big thank you to Carlos Filho Silva and his team for arranging this truly memorable experience!

23 not just waste but also football enthusiasts from all over the world registered for the match which took place at one of the most beautiful stadiums of Sao Paulo, the Pacaembu stadium with a capacity of over 40,000 (it was not completely sold out... as you can take from the photos there were still some seats available ;-)

Everything was prepared excellently – the especially designed ISWA uniforms already hanging in each players locker in the changing room at their arrival, a competent team of professional referees, the playground in perfect condition, medals for all participants – and, of course, the ISWA World Cup trophy for the winning team.

The spectators were lucky to see a very interesting match with a dramatic run of things and many goals – despite the extremely high temperature which demanded the players to unlock their last reserves. The very close match ended 6:4.

After the game the participants were offered the opportunity to visit to the Football Museum.

ISWA WORLD CONGRESS 2015, Antwerp, Belgium: Call for Abstracts

Antwerp Vice Mayor Philip Heylen

On behalf of the city of Antwerp, Interafval and ISWA, Philip Heylen, Antwerp Vice Mayor and chairman of the ISWA 2015 organizing committee, is looking forward to welcoming you at the ISWA World Congress 2015 in Flanders/Belgium!

The results of the Flemish waste and resources policy are impressive. Many waste management companies are making the area around Antwerp, Europe’s third largest port and the world’s second-largest petrochemicals zone, a show-case of best practices and trend-setting technologies. As a pocket-size metropolis, the city also has a lot to offer in terms of history, culture and gastronomy. The organizers, backed by the industry and in close cooperation with the Board of ISWA, aim to make this congress in Antwerp a memorable success.

The ISWA World Congress 2015 in Antwerp will guarantee a balanced mix of internationally renowned keynote speakers, representatives of institutions and agencies worldwide that determine waste and materials policy, interesting insights into the latest scientific and technological developments in the sector, and above all, a lot of opportunities for networking and exchange of experience.

If you would like to find out more, if you are interested in collaborating on our congress or if you are convinced that our congress is the ideal showcase for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

The ISWA 2015 committee invites authors to submit abstracts for presentation within any of the ISWA themes. Submissions are welcome for oral and online poster presentations. Abstracts must be submitted online via www.iswa2015.org.

Please note the deadline for abstract submission is 9am 11 December 2014 GMT!

Beacon Conference on Waste Prevention & Recycling in Copenhagen

ISWA and DAKOFA held a very successful 4th Beacon Conference in Copenhagen on Waste Prevention and Recycling titled “Closing the Loops” in Copenhagen, Denmark, June 16th – 17th 2014.

The conference was organised in cooperation with the City of Copenhagen and the ISWA Working Group on Waste Prevention and Recycling. The conference has been attended by 127 participants from 32 countries.

The keynote speakers of the first day were Janez Potočnik, EU Commissioner for the Environment (on video), the Danish Minister Environmental Kirsten Brosbøll and Morten Nielsen, Vice President, Group CSR Carlsberg.

The three keynotes together introduced the various aspects of the importance in closing the loops. The keynote speeches were followed by 3 sessions with the following themes:

1. Resource efficiency and circular economy

2. Waste prevention and zero waste

3. New Sustainable Business Models

The second day of the conference was dedicated to the theme of closing the plastic loop, which included a feedback from the EU-life+-project “Plastic Zero” as well as a workshop.

The main conclusions from the two conference

In order to close the loops we need cooperation, partnerships and networking throughout and across value chains – that was the main conclusion of the conference

Therefore, it is important to develop better information flows up and down the value and production chains also outside traditional geographical and organisational boundaries. The circular economy has inner and outer circles and we have to recognize the power of the “inner” circles – reuse, repair and refurbishing.

The agenda is not driven by the waste management sector. It’s driven by the industry, growth policy and NGO’s. The waste management sector has to re-earn our place at the table. The sector has to cooperate with the designers, production companies and retailors etc. and in future work with e.g. revers logistics to get the secondary resources back in to the loops´.

The waste sector has to recognize that we cannot do it alone. We need to engage in new cooperation and partnerships and aspire to be the new knowledge hub and network node for resource management.

Also we need new roles of authorities that needs to take more responsibilities when it comes to saving resource and secure green jobs and growth. We need to develop new models for financial incentives and utilize the power of public procurement – 2 trillion euros! We need to seed money for new infrastructure, support innovation and demonstration projects and cases are needed to develop new technologies for more effective and “gentle” separation and sorting.

ISWA Summer School 2014, Romania

Between 18 to 29th of August, ISWA in partnership with the Romanian Association of Sanitation and the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, organized the “Summer School On Material And Energy Recovery Of Municipal Waste in Developing Economies”.

This third edition of the ISWA Summer School brought together more than 30 students, master students, researchers, professors, PhD students, and experts from Germany, Austria, Finland, Serbia, Macedonia, Hungary, Ukraine, Oman, India, Estonia and Romania.

The event was held at the Faculty of Materials and Environmental Engineering - Technical University of Cluj-Napoca with participants indulging in a variety of lectures. For two weeks, participants discussed various aspects of sustainable waste management, among others: collection and transportation, transfer stations, sorting plants, biodegradable waste treatment, energy recovery and waste disposal. Classes were also focused on technical elements, economic and environmental scenarios specific for recycling and energy recovery from municipal solid waste.

The main objective of this summer school was to provide advanced the knowledge in integrated waste management planning to an international audience from developed and developing economies.

In addition to the theoretical courses, the program was rounded off by technical and social visits to an Integrated Waste Management Center in Oradea, to a hazardous waste combustion plant in Cluj and the famous Turda salt mine.

Ambitious actions to reduce emissions from SLCPs from MSW

Since the launch of the CCAC Municipal Solid Waste Initiative, a group of cities have committed to accelerate the implementation of actions in their corresponding solid waste management systems to reduce the emissions of Short Lived Climate Pollutants. The replication and scaling up of their actions in additional cities is being supported by national governments and partners of the CCAC such as ISWA.

The city and national partnerships developed through the Initiative have proven to be a working model of rapid capacity building and technical expertise development to reduce SLCPs in the waste sector.

ISWA as a lead partner of this initiative, participated in the first global workshop held on the 11th & 12th of September in Sao Paulo. Close to 75 participants were in attendance including representatives from central government agencies, local municipalities, multilateral organizations, NGOs, and consulting firms assisting the MSWI.

Next week the UN Climate Summit will take place in New York. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited leaders from government, finance, business, and civil society to come forward with action statements to galvanise and catalyse climate action. ISWA will be there and will be supporting the CCAC MSW Initiative, one of the few initiatives that have been selected to announce its ambitious pledge.

ISWA develops a series of webinars for the CCAC

CCAC MSW webinar series

As part of ISWA’s role as Lead Partner of the MSW Initiative of the Climate & Clean Air Coalition, ISWA has been tasked to produce a series of Webinars.

The first set on Organic Waste Management & Treatment Optionshas been successfully delivered with the support of the ISWA Working Group on Biological Treatment of Waste. The Webinars aim to build capacity at the city level to reduce the impact of Waste Management Practices on Climate and Public Health.

Around 40 participants from Latin America, Asia and Africa participated in the live streaming.

EU Healthcare Waste Project

Even though healthcare waste is very heavily regulated across Europe there is a considerable range of levels of waste management depending on national strategy and infrastructure. This project is seen as an opportunity to improve the skills of the existing workforce as well as training people in the appropriate skills prior to them entering the sector.

The aim of this EU funded project under the LDV Grant is to develop an EU Standardised Approach to Vocational Educational Training Awards in Healthcare Waste Management.

ISWA joined the other Partners of this project in Berlin from 1-2 September to share the results of the 1st activity to develop National Surveys on the status of Healthcare waste training. The project partners have been conducting two assessments; one on the current vocational education and training available in hospitals in their country, and a second assessment of the current waste management practices, and training opportunities, in private and public hospitals in their country.

You can follow the progress of this very interesting project by joining the linked in Group EU-HCWM and at http://www.hcwm.eu/

A Practical Sourcebook on Mercury Storage and Disposal

The Expert Group Face-to-face Meeting for the development of “A Practical Sourcebook on Mercury Storage and Disposal”, a joint effort of UNEP Chemicals and ISWA, took place 27 to 28 August in Vienna at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

The two-day meeting gathered 26 participants from 14 countries, consisting of practitioners, the academia and the national governments, bringing expertise and concerns from various aspects into fruitful discussions. The objective of reviewing the draft Sourcebook and agreeing on controversial sections of the content was reached.

The Sourcebook will incorporate agreed amendments into a final draft by the end of September 2014. The final Sourcebook is envisaged to be presented to the Sixth Meeting of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership Advisory Group. Eventually it will be published into UN languages and also provide an online interactive tool.

From 25 to 26 August, six participants worked on 8 sub-chapters of the TRP+ and had very interesting and effective discussions. Topics discussed included: Mercury Wastes, PoPs, Asbestos, Physical-chemical Treatment, Waste Handling, Storage and Waste Handling, Management Systems for Safety, Environment and Social Factor.

It is expected to have the final draft of these sub-chapters ready and uploaded to the online expert forum, in order to be finally compiled into the complete package next year in 2015. For more information about the TRP+ Project, please visit: http://www.trp-training.info/ . Contact: iswa@remove-this.iswa.org

Working Group Landfill – Fond Farewell Mr Derek Greedy

Derek Greedy

The recent meeting of the ISWA WG-Landfill during the ISWA World Congress saw the end of an era, as Mr Derek Greedy long standing chair stepped down.

Mr Greedy has been Chairman of the Working Group for the past 8 years. He has been a great advocate for closing of open dumps and transitioning to sanitary landfills across the globe. The WG is happy that they will not lose the vast knowledge and experience of Mr Greedy just yet and that he will continue to be part of the Working Group. Also now that he has been selected as an honorary member of ISWA we hope to continue to see his cheery face at many of our ISWA events. Behind every great person is a great supporter.

Thanks also go to Jan Thrane, former vice-chair who was a fabulous 2nd in command during Mr Greedy’s Chairmanship.

Now it is time to welcome the new chair, Mr Luis Marinheiro from Portugal and vice chair James Law from USA.

New Platinum Member: ARA AG from Austria

ISWA is happy to welcome and present a new Platinum Member!

ARA AG (Altstoff Recycling Austria AG) is Austria's leading collection and recovery system for packaging waste.

ARA AG about themselves: "We use the revenues from license fees to organise and finance the collection, sorting and recovery of packaging waste in Austria. Our modern collection and recovery system for all types of packaging is available to consumers and businesses all acrross the country. The compliance service for glass packaging is co-organised by ARA AG and AGR GmbH, the collection and recvovery system for glass packaging."

“Food waste is generated throughout the supply chain from initial agricultural production to household consumption. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that approximately one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally amounting around 1.2 billion tonnes per year. There are many causes of food losses depending on the level of development of the country. In order to address these causes, the first and the foremost step is to determine the scale of food waste generated along the food supply chain. This paper reviews the food waste estimates in EU-27 and compares them with a methodology developed by the FAO. This work gives an excellent overview of how to determine the reliability of food waste generation data“.

Read the Editor’s Choice article for free here and access the full collection of past papers here.

Profile: Vivek Agrawal (India)

Vivek Agrawal, Chairman of the ISWA Working Group on Collection and Transport Technology.

Company and current position in your company

Kanak Resources Management Limited, Managing Director.

What is your background?

Medical Doctor, MBBS, MBA, BJMC

Specialization: Solid Waste Management, Communication & Urban Health.

Did you always work in the waste industry?

No, Initially into public health especially mother and child health.

Did you ever have a mentor or someone you found inspirational?

Yes, my teachers Prof. Rameshwar Sharma and Dr. S.D.Gupta , who are legends in public health. Their passion and devotion to the subject.

What would you say is your greatest achievement to date?

1. Establishing micro enterprises of waste pickers

2. UN Habitat Scroll of Honour 2004

3. Established waste as an industry in India

Best advice that you ever received?

Work in mission mode and be concerned for humans you work with.

When not working, I enjoy...

Exploring new destinations for travel and political updates.

Why did you decide to become part of ISWA?

To take local issues globally. To learn and get updates.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the waste industry today?

The wide gap between technologies adapted in emerging and developed economies. Waste is not an hazardous industry as per ILO. Appropriate technology for emerging economies.

In your opinion, what are the industry’s strengths and weaknesses?

Strengh: It is one industry which will remain forever and not affected by any recession.

Weakness: Too many stakeholders.

Where do you see, if any, market opportunities for the waste industry?

Emerging Economies globally.

ISWA 3 Months Trial Membership

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News from around the Globe

AUSTRALIA: Painting a picture of waste in Australia

A national product stewardship scheme for architectural and decorative (A&D) paint has been recommended by the National Paint Stewardship Scheme Implementation Working Group in a new report on Australian paint consumption and disposal.

Amongst other things, the report found that over 150 million litres of A&D paint is sold annually in Australia with 43% of this sold to householders and retailers, the remaining being sold to trader painters. Of the A&D paint sold annually, 6.1% becomes waste requiring disposal while 1.1%, or 2,600 tonnes, is stockpiled.

The National Paint Stewardship Scheme Implementation Working Group, made up of senior representatives of government and industry, and led by Sustainability Victoria, aims to develop and implement a national voluntary paint stewardship scheme in Australia and said the report will form the cornerstone in the development and economic modelling of a national scheme expected to commence mid to late 2015.

EUROPE: 96% say resources should be used more efficiently

The vast majority of Europeans think their own country is generating too much waste, according to the results of a new research poll.

The survey on the "Attitudes of Europeans towards Waste Management and Resource Efficiency" indicates that 96 % of respondents say it is important for them that Europe uses its resources more efficiently.

More than two-thirds of the 26,000 people surveyed said the issue of resource efficiency was very important for them, and just 3 % of respondents said this issue is not important at all.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: "Waste clearly touches a nerve, Europeans want to waste less, and they are making efforts to practise what they preach. This makes moving to a more circular economy a logical step forward. The appetite for more recycling is there, now we need to deliver the mechanisms to help it happen."

UK: Ban food waste to landfill, says EAC

The Environmental Audit Committee is calling on government to introduce a landfill ban for food waste and lower the rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) on recycled products to help boost the circular economy and end the ‘throwaway society’.

The calls come in a new report, Growing a circular economy: Ending the throwaway society, which has been issued following an inquiry into whether it is possible to de-couple economic growth from natural resource use, and what roles household recycling and the waste management sector have in the circular economy (where resources are reused and recycled rather than disposed of).

USA: Garbage-loving techno-shell takes a bite of waste

A large shell-shaped structure is sucking tonnes of rubbish out of a river for free.

The Inner Harbour Water Wheel uses solar power to run a water wheel, into which garbage from the surrounding harbour is funnelled.

A raking system shoves it through the structure’s conveyor belt, where floating garbage is separated from the water and deposited into a dumpster barge.

The remarkable structure is the brainchild of US engineer John Kellett, who has spent over a decade designing similar systems for low-energy water-powered refuse infiltrators.

The wheel has been in place in the city of Baltimore for several months.

From May 16 to June 16 this year, the wheel pulled out 46 tons of garbage from the harbour, which city officials said was a major contribution to efforts to prevent plastic and debris from reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

USA: E-waste recycling facility for rare earths in Michigan (VIDEO)

Mount Pleasant, Michigan based e-waste recycling firm, 3S International has opened its first end-of-life electronics processing facility to recover rare earth elements in Tinley Park, Illinois.

According to the company, the 8000 square foot (740 square metre) facility houses the only BLUBOX unit in the U.S. - a proprietary technology that is claimed to reduce electronics into recyclable fragments and safely extract rare earth elements, including mercury.

3S added that the BLUEBOX technology process e-waste at a rate of 2200 pounds (1 metric tonne) per hour, and that it is the only company in the U.S. with the rights to the technology.

WORLD: Researchers say Pacific garbage patch growing

Researchers have returned to the area known as the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’, which captured the world’s attention when a huge ‘garbage island’ was spotted in the middle of the Pacific, and they say it is getting worse.

Toothbrushes, hardhats and plastic icy pole sticks are among the common items scientists have discovered while researching the giant patch of rubbish in the Pacific.

Researchers from the team at the Algalita Marine Research Institute, founded by Charles Moore, who first discovered the problem, are spending a month at the site, using drones and dinghies to investigate what changes have occurred over the past 15 years.